Japan has allegedly shown interest in joining a NATO missile building consortium so Tokyo can take part in a multinational defense project. The US supports a plan that could enable Japan to lead similar alliances in Asia, according to a report.

In May, Japanese naval officers traveled to a NATO meeting in The
Hague to get more information about the 12-country consortium,
which oversees development and shares the costs of the US-made
SeaSparrow missile, Japan's navy and a US source familiar with
the trip told Reuters. The advanced ship-borne short-range
weapon is designed to destroy anti-ship sea-skimming missiles and
attack aircraft.

Two Japanese sources familiar with the initiative said that while
discussions in Tokyo were at an early stage, joining the
consortium would go hand in hand with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's
expanding military agenda. Earlier this year, Tokyo approved its
largest military budget in 70 years, raising it to nearly 5
trillion yen (US$42 billion). Last year, Japan lifted a
self-imposed four-decade ban on selling weapons. The new export
guidelines will “help maintain global peace and
security,” the government said, according to the Japan
Times.

The NATO Seasparrow Consortium, established in
1968, is set to develop an upgraded version of the SeaSparrow.
Should Japan join in, the project's costs would be further
reduced. Besides, according to the US source cited by Reuters,
the Pentagon sees a role for Japan in leading multinational
military industrial partnerships in Asia to counterbalance
China’s continuing rise. It's believed that such partnerships,
which are almost nonexistant in Asia, could help set up a network
of security ties operating beyond formal military alliances.

"We think this project will allow Japan to lay the groundwork
for further defense export programs in the future," the US
source told Reuters. "We would welcome this kind of security
cooperation activity by Japan in the region."
The Japanese Navy already uses the SeaSparrow missile, assembled
by Mitsubishi Electric in Japan under a co-production agreement
with NATO and the US manufacturers. Therefore, Japan's potential
transition to a full consortium partner would not be difficult to
make, the US source told Reuters.

In May, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet approved legislation
authorizing Japan to expand its military capacity beyond
self-defense, enabling it to play a greater international role.
If passed into law, the bills would overturn a pacifist
constitution signed by Japan after its defeat in World War II,
which banned the use of force as a means of settling
international disputes. One of the experts, Waseda University
professor Yasuo Hasebe, who was invited to address the parliament
in June, warned that the legislation would "considerably
damage the legal stability" of the nation, violating Japan's
post-World War II pacifist constitution, according to The Los
Angeles Times.

The Japanese public has also slammed the proposed bills, calling
them “war legislation” aimed at turning Japan toward
militarism. Many say the legislation would nullify nearly 70
years of Tokyo’s efforts to regain international trust.
The move by Abe's cabinet has also been negatively viewed by
South Korea and China.

"We hope that Japan can earnestly learn the lessons of
history, uphold the path of peaceful development...and play a
constructive role in this Asian region," Chinese Foreign
Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying stated in May.
However, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe implied that Tokyo is
not going to reiterate an apology for WWII aggression and war
crimes. Speaking to Fuji TV in late April, Abe said there would
be no more apologies to the victims of Japanese aggression during
WWII. This is a direct contradiction of Abe’s predecessors, who
issued apologies for the country's notorious conduct during the
Second World War.

Abe’s private visit to the Yasukuni war shrine in Tokyo in
December 2013 provoked outrage from China and South Korea, the
countries Japan occupied until defeat in 1945. Among the 2.4
million war dead honored at the shrine are
internationally-recognized war criminals, who committed
atrocities on the occupied territories.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
are also considering the introduction of an overseas intelligence
network, possibly modeled on Britain's MI6 spy agency, the first
of its kind since World War II, Reuters reported in March. When
the Allied forces defeated Japan 70 years ago, they also
demolished its intelligence apparatus, which had allowed Tokyo to
become a self-reliant Asian powerhouse at the time. This left
Tokyo largely dependent upon the intelligence work of other
nations, notably the United States. The current stance in
Japanese political circles is that the nation must reassert
itself in the international spying arena.

Relations between Japan and China have been soured by a
territorial row over a group of islands in the disputed waters of
the South China Sea. Japan, the US and their allies have been
demanding that China stops construction of artificial islands
located near potential undersea reserves of oil and gas. Beijing
claims most of the sea as its own, saying it is historically
Chinese. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei
also say parts of the area belong to them. According to China,
Washington has been adding fuel to the fire by backing other
countries with territorial claims to the sea.

Japan and the Philippines agreed on an exchange of military
technology and hardware in June. In May, Tokyo gave the go-ahead
for talks on transfers of defense equipment and technology with
Malaysia.

Japan has also recently joined the bidding race to develop and
build a new generation of submarines for Australia. If Japan gets
the green light as a joint development partner, it would be the
first instance of the nation selling technology directly related
to weaponry since Tokyo approved new principles on the export of
weapons and arms-related science in April, the Asahi Shimbun
reported.

Washington has been putting its weight behind the idea of
cooperation between Australia and Japan, backing the
Japanese-built submarine packed with US surveillance, radar and
weapons equipment, sources told Reuters last month.